Postal informal entry: a bond, three filers, and the 7th of the month

The three things that bite

If you read nothing else, read these. Each one stops a shipment on its own, and none of them can be fixed at the counter.

• A bond is required. New 19 CFR 145.15 requires a single transaction or continuous bond meeting the 19 CFR 113.62 conditions, activity code 1, on file in ACE eBond before anything moves.
• Only three parties can file: the owner of the merchandise, the purchaser, or a licensed customs broker properly designated by the owner, purchaser or consignee. The right to make entry hook is 19 CFR 143.26(a), and a broker cannot appoint itself.
• Payment is due by the 7th day of the month following arrival, by ACH Debit through the Pay.gov International Mail Duties form. Not seven days after arrival. The 7th of the next month.

Who may file, and who will not do it for you

The filer list is short on purpose. Entry can be made by an owner or purchaser of the merchandise being mailed to the United States, or by a licensed customs broker properly designated by the owner, purchaser or consignee. That designation is the part people miss. A broker cannot step in on its own initiative because it happens to be handling your other freight, and a forwarder or a seller abroad cannot hand our name in on your behalf without you actually designating us.

And CBP has said plainly that CBP officers will not prepare entry forms for mail shipments under the new informal entry process. The old habit of a postal parcel being sorted out at a counter by a CBP officer is over. Somebody on that three-name list files it, or it does not get filed.

The payment deadline is a calendar date, not a countdown

This is the detail most likely to cost money, because it is easy to misremember as a seven day clock. It is not. Payment must be transmitted by ACH Debit through the Pay.gov International Mail Duties form no later than the 7th day of the month following the arrival of the shipment, and the data spreadsheet goes by email to CBPDM@cbp.dhs.gov on the same deadline.

CBP's own worked example is the clearest way to hold it: a package that arrived on April 15 is due no later than May 7. A package arriving on April 1 has the same due date as one arriving April 30. So a shipment landing early in a month gives you weeks, and one landing near the end gives you days. Late payment draws interest under 19 CFR 24.3a.

CBP's example: a package that arrived April 15 is due no later than May 7. Late payment draws interest under 19 CFR 24.3a.

September 22, 2026: Entry Type 13 opens

On September 22, 2026, CBP's test of the new electronic informal entry process for mail commences, under FR 2026-12668, published at 91 FR 38007. It is Entry Type 13, it is voluntary, and there is no separate application to join it.

It covers mail shipments valued at $2,500 or less, and it is open to the same people: owners, purchasers, and properly designated licensed customs brokers. If you are moving mail volume regularly, this is the electronic path worth setting up rather than handling each parcel as its own paper exercise.

October 22, 2026: what stops being eligible

One date is being described wrongly around the web, so it is worth being precise. October 22, 2026 is not a day when new requirements start. It is the day certain goods stop being eligible for the postal informal entry process at all. CBP delayed enforcement of these exclusions until then. From that date those shipments must go to Entry Type 13 or to formal entry instead.

• Chapter 98 goods, and goods subject to Chapter 98 or Chapter 99 duties.
• Goods claiming free trade agreement treatment.
• Goods subject to Partner Government Agency requirements.
• The regulatory hooks are 19 CFR 145.12(a)(2)(v) and (vi).

When this is worth paying a broker for, and when it is not

We cannot make the duty go away, and we will not pretend the new process is more frightening than it is in order to sell around it. For one personal parcel, a broker's fee will usually be more than the duty involved, and you are better served by us telling you that in five minutes than by us opening a file.

Where it earns its keep is repetition. If parcels arrive every week, if the same product needs the same classification every time, if a bond has to exist in ACE eBond before the next shipment moves, or if your goods fall into the October 22 exclusions and need a different entry type, then having one licensed broker holding the calendar and the filings is cheaper than any single mistake.

The questions that decide it are all in your own paperwork: whether you are the owner or purchaser, or need to designate a broker in writing; whether you already have a bond on file and whether it fits; whether what you import touches Chapter 98 or 99, a free trade agreement claim, or a Partner Government Agency; and what your actual arrival dates make your payment deadline. That is a short call, and it ends with dates you can write down.